Harry Potter and the Mystery of the Veil
by TRF
Summary: Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts is full of things he never suspected. Some great, some horrid, and some just plain creepy. He also finds support, loyalty, romance, and more about the workings of th ever-corrupt Ministry of Magic. Cameo to whoever can ma
1. The Real Chapter Title Wouldn't Fit Here

A/N: Well, I just finished the 5th Harry Potter book the other day and suddenly I had ideas for the 6th one!  I've learned over the course of my time as a fanfiction writer that if you don't write down ideas, they completely escape you.  So yeah, enjoy.  And…*Takes a deep breath* Remember Sirius Black!  His death has left me very, very sad and Bellatrix Lestrange must DIE!

**_Harry Potter and the Mystery of the Veil_**

**_Year 6 at Hogwarts_**

**_Chapter One: The First of the Casualties, and Slight Closure._**

**__**

            On the beginning of a particularly humid day in all of Great Britain as the sun was beginning to rise, most residents of Privet Drive were still asleep in their beds.  However, one boy with messy dark hair and green eyes lay awake.  It wasn't just that his godfather was dead, it wasn't just that an evil dark wizard who wanted to kill him was on the loose, and it wasn't just that he was a bit concerned about how he'd done on his O.W.L.s that had kept the boy known as Harry Potter awake all night, though it was certainly a contribution of the three afore-mentioned topics among other things.  Certainly he'd been in better communications with the wizarding world this summer, but he still felt that this was a worse summer than the last.

At the sound of pecking on his window, Harry turned his head.  It looked like another ordinary post owl, probably with more condolences from someone he'd never met about Sirius's death.  Ever since the Death Eaters trapped in Azkaban had admitted to Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge that Sirius had never really committed any crime, and it had become public how upset Harry was about his death, he'd received hundreds of letters from wizards and witches expressing their sorrow about Sirius's death.  He'd received letters from as close as just about five miles away from Privet Drive ("If you ever need anything, just come and knock!" –Yours, Elizabeth Warttog) and as far away as Japan ("If my mother would have let me, I'd have sent you some lucky statues from our temple!" –Sincerely, Koji Zumiku).  Harry sighed and got up to retrieve the letter from the owl, and prompted Hedwig to share the space in her cage to let it rest because the owl seemed to have come from Alaska according to the letter.  He threw the letter on a pile near other ones without really reading it, not being exactly keen to hear another letter somewhere along the lines of, "I'm sorry!  I thought Black was guilty, but now that I hear the real story, my loss is your loss!" because all that meant was that the person was sorry for an amazing 0.5 seconds and then went on with their life.

"Hedwig, give the other owl some room," said Harry with a slight smile on his face as the other owl tried in vain to push itself from the very edge of the cage.  Hedwig gave an indignant hoot, but complied.

"My O.W.L. results were have supposed to arrived by now," murmured Harry to himself.  And then he wondered bemusedly if maybe they couldn't arrive because of the rather steady stream of other owls dropping off condolence letters.  It actually seemed halfway plausible because many owls, upon seeing a bunch of others of their kind dropped their letters off at the front door and left.  This, of course, infuriated Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia beyond belief because it seemed the neighbors were starting to whisper some awfully ugly theories about why around 75 letters on a slow day and up to 150 letters on a busy day were on the doorstep of Number 4 Privet Drive every morning.  Harry could have easily papered his room three times over with the letters and envelopes if he'd wanted to.

As he heard another knock on the window, he turned and expected to see another post owl.  But what he saw instead were four people on broomsticks.  One of them, he knew, was Nymphadora Tonks, the daughter of Sirius's cousin, but he had no clue who the other three-a woman slightly younger than Tonks with dark brown thick-looking hair, a man who appeared a good five years older than Tonks with shoulder-length dirty blond hair in a loose ponytail and a short beard and a girl of about six to eight with the same shade of hair as the man pulled in a tight, high ponytail-were.  He opened up the window when Tonks began to wave rapidly at him and watched them come into his room.

The man looked apprehensive as they got in, eying everything in the room including Harry himself as though he thought it might explode or attack at any second.  The young girl was looking around with a grin on her face as though she'd just been given a cartload of presents.  The dark brown haired woman was giving Harry a kind smile and Tonks was shuffling for something in the bag she had had on her back.  She finally smiled and gave Harry a sheet of folded paper.

"Those are your O.W.L. results, Harry!" she told him winking, and then when the brown haired woman gave her a raised eyebrow look, she added, "Hope you don't mind I gave them a glance…it's not as though you had any sort of horrible grade I could go around gossiping about to people except those…eh…two.  Oh, and here's a Daily Prophet one of those owls outside was trying to deliver."

Harry eagerly opened his O.W.L. result and looked down at what it read:

Potter, Harry

Gryffindor

Head of House: Minerva McGonagall 

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

5th Year O.W.L. Results

Dear Mr. Potter,

     Congratulations on completing your 5th year Ordinary Wizarding Levels (O.W.L.s) enclosed you will find the subject, who taught it the year you look your examination, and your grade (O=Outstanding, E=Exceeds Expectations, A=Average, P=Poor, D=Dreadful, T=Terrible).

Transfiguration-Minerva McGonagall: O

Charms-Filius Flitwick: E

Potions-Severus Snape: O (Harry wondered if Snape was now committing suicide).

Defense Against the Dark Arts-Dolores Umbridge: O

Divination-Sibyll Trelawney/Firenze: D (Harry didn't think that was overly shocking, as bad a grade as it was).

Herbology-Carrie Sprout: E

Astronomy-Amalthea Sinistra: A

Care of Magical Creatures-Rubeus Hagrid/Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank: O

History of Magic-Bernard Binns: T (Even worse than Divination?  Harry was surprised).

Based on your O.W.L. results, this is a list of subjects (and those who will teach them) that you will take upon returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on the first of September in this year of 1996:

N.E.W.T. Level Potions (Severus Snape)

N.E.W.T. Level Transfiguration (Minerva McGonagall)

N.E.W.T. Level Charms (Filius Flitwick)

N.E.W.T. Level Defense Against the Dark Arts (Remus Lupin) 

N.E.W.T. Level Herbology (Carrie Sprout)

N.E.W.T. Level Astronomy (Amalthea Sinistra)

N.E.W.T. Level Care of Magical Creature (Rubeus Hagrid)

O.W.L.s Total: 7

Sincerely,

Edmund Edugon 

Edmund Edugon, Head of the Department of Education

            Harry looked at his results with immense relief.  He was happy to finally be dropping History of Magic (He also wondered who else besides Hermione in their right mind would want to pass) and Divination.  He was taking all the classes necessary to be an Auror, and not even the thought of being locked up with Snape for another two years could deter him from his jubilation.  Then he suddenly remembered that three complete strangers were standing in his room, "Uh…Tonks, who are these other people?"

"Oh yeah!  I haven't introduced you yet, have I?  Makes me feel real stupid!" she said with a grin, "Well, the person next to me," she gestured to the woman with dark brown hair, "is my younger sister, Rhonda.  The man is Darius, and the little girl is his daughter, Marcy."

"And if you were only bringing me my results and the Daily Prophet, why are they here?  I've been writing to let Moody know I'm ok," replied Harry.

"Daddy, daddy!" cried Marcy, "Look at Harry Potter's owl!" she pointed to Hedwig, "I want Harry Potter's owl, daddy!  Can I have his owl?" she asked.

"I'll get you your own owl later if you're good," said Darius.

"But I want Harry Potter's owl!" wailed Marcy.

"Don't mind her," Rhonda whispered to Harry, "her mum died giving birth to her and because of that, Darius has spoiled her rotten.  This is actually the best she's behaved the entire trip." Harry instantly felt sympathy for the group if they'd really had to listen to Marcy's whining the whole way.

"But…why are they here?" Harry asked Tonks again, "It can't really have been that dangerous to bring me my results by yourself?"

Tonks sighed, "Well, Harry, I know how close you and Sirius were," Harry felt a sudden new wave of pain at the mention of his godfather's name, "and I thought that maybe I should bring the only surviving relatives he had left besides me and my aunts," and then, when Marcy started off on how she wanted to jump on Harry's bed to see how comfy it was, Tonks added, "I'm beginning to think I should have just brought Rhonda.  Darius and Marcy are related from his mum's side and I've actually never really met them before now." Harry wished Tonks had spared the trouble of seeing what they were like before they'd been dragged (No doubt metaphorically kicking and screaming) into his room.

"…and if I can't have his owl, or jump on his bed, or look at his Firebolt, or look at that scrapbook he has, what can I do?" simpered Marcy to her father.

"You can be good for daddy and he'll get you an owl, a Firebolt, a new bed, and a scrapbook later," hissed Darius, "and pretend you know good, positive things about a dead distant relative named Sirius Black!" he said, obviously thinking that Harry was near-deaf or something.

"Well no one is making you stay," snapped Harry loudly, being very annoyed with Darius and his spoiled daughter.

Darius gave him a cold, cool stare, "Then we'll go if we're not appreciated," he stuck his nose into the air and seemed to expect Harry to start groveling and beg him to stay.

"You do that because I'm having enough trouble this summer without stuck-up snots acting like they're doing me some huge favor by _"gracing"_ me with their presence!" yelled Harry.

"Come then, Marcy," said Darius, putting his daughter gently on her broomstick and getting on his own, "We don't have time for naïve, know-it-all, temper-tantrum-throwing _children_."

"Then I'm surprised you have time for your daughter!" retaliated Harry, wanting desperately to get an excuse to throttle Darius before he left.

Darius simply stuck his nose in the air and took off.  Marcy stopped to stick out her tongue at Harry before she too left.

Harry took a few deep breaths and attempted to compose himself before he talked with Tonks or Rhonda.  His hands were clenched at his side and shaking.  He wanted Sirius back!  He didn't want Sirius's mum's stuck up family!  He didn't even want Rhonda or Tonks bothering him if they couldn't stop to figure out that he'd have no desire to meet with people like that that'd never even known Sirius in the first place!  He just wanted to be alone again, to give Moody his letters confirming that he was fine, to read Ron and Hermione's letters and write short, but adequate replies back, he wanted to discover something about the damned veil that had killed Sirius in peace!  The only difference a visit from Rhonda and Tonks had from the condolence letters was that the words "I'm sorry" were said in person and these two had actually slightly known Sirius.

"I told you!" snapped Rhonda to her sister, "I mean, it's just scraping over a month since his death!  I haven't seen him since a few weeks before he was sent to Azkaban and _I _was upset to the point of moping until just recently!"

"Sorry!  I didn't think-maybe I wasn't thinking-I was just-" Tonks seemed rather upset and unsure of how to present her case.

"It's alright," murmured Harry softly, figuring it was better to reconcile for this ugly incident now rather than have bitter fights about it later.

"Would you rather we just leave after we give you the other news we needed to bring then?" asked Tonks softly.  Harry nodded mutely.

"See?  I kept telling you that you need to give people a good sized space of breathing room when someone they were extremely close to dies in such a shocking way…" Rhonda was muttering to Tonks.  Harry wondered from the look on Tonks's face whether she was listening or not.

If she was listening, she didn't give any indication and moved straight on to her other message for Harry, "A week from now Remus is coming to take you to the Order's Headquarters," Harry knew "headquarters" meant Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Sirius's home, "It would be really helpful if you were ready when he came to avoid too much confrontation between him and your muggle relatives," Harry nodded slowly, and then, smiling a bit sadly Tonks added, "See you then Harry…I'm sorry, really."

"It told you, it's alright," replied Harry, trying to even give her a ghost of a smile back.

And then the two sisters mounted their broomsticks and took off into the early morning sun.  Harry threw himself down his bed, not at all sure how he felt about the recent turn of events.  On one hand, he was glad he was going to be leaving Privet Drive because Dudley and Uncle Vernon were becoming unbearable with their accusations and excuses to give Harry a punishment that was harsh, but not so significant that he felt he should complain to the Order, and Aunt Petunia was actually pretty much keeping her nose out of it, but kept throwing Harry odd looks that he couldn't quite pin a particular emotion on.

On the other hand, he couldn't help but flinch thinking of the pain that seeing Number Twelve Grimmauld Place would bring.  It would be hard to think that it had just been months ago in December that he had celebrated Christmas there with Sirius, Hermione and the Weasleys.  He feared that too much time spent there would have him reduced to a Kreacher-like state: The others there would find him in Sirius's room clinging pitifully to a pair of Sirius's old trousers as he muttered to himself, though, claiming to whoever might walk in that he was talking with Sirius.  He decided to ponder all of this later and see what was in the Daily Prophet today, but seconds later wished that he hadn't as he saw what was emblazoned on the front page.

**_He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's First Attack!  The shocking death of the Macmillans!_**

By Prophet Reporter Richard Leon

The Wizarding community was in shock yesterday over the first attack by feared dark Wizard, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!  Up until last June, our Ministry had denied his return to power, despite the pleas of Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived.  Even after the official statement of his return by Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge and the capture of alleged Death Eaters (Including well-respected member of society, Lucius Malfoy-Turn to page nine for his family's side of the argument) some people refused that the horrible wizard had truly returned, but after what happened last night, none can deny themselves any further: He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back in power, and he has begun to kill again.  Last night, he and his remaining Death Eaters stormed into the house of Ministry Official Lawrence Macmillan 40, and killed him, his wife, Rochelle Macmillan, 39, their son Ernie, 16, and daughter Amanda, 10.  Neighbors were alarmed when they saw the feared Dark Mark above the Macmillans' house and saw "a suspicious-looking bunch of people walk happily out the front door, like Christmas had come early," according to neighbor Mueller Hoffman, 52.  There is no doubt that a combination of the illegal curses, Cruciatus and Avada Kedavra were used to kill the Macmillans, however, the medi-wizards and witches will have the conclusive autopsy results tomorrow evening.

Harry couldn't believe it.  Surely…surely Ernie Macmillan couldn't really be dead?  Surely this was some sort of sick joke, and once you turned to the back page, the editors would fess up to an early April Fools joke.  Surely when he came back to Hogwarts on September 1st, Ernie would come striding up to everyone laughing about the Prophet's joke.  But there was no explanation on the back, and in the pit of his stomach, Harry knew that Ernie and his family were really gone.  Just like Sirius.  He balled up his fists and threw the paper onto the floor.  What was the point of ever connecting with anyone?! They were all going to die like Sirius had!  They were all going to die because they were on his side, against Voldemort!  Harry thought angrily that he shouldn't even come out of his room when Lupin came to get him, because eventually, Lupin would probably be killed too!

_'I'll be looking into the face of a dead man walking!  And if it's not Voldemort, or Wormtail, or anyone of those other miserable Death Eaters, the Ministry will start up some crazy anti-werewolf campaign and demand that they all be killed, and werewolves will be in the same situation as the giants!  In fact, if I want to talk with anyone, I should probably stroll over to Malfoy Manor and have a nice chat with Draco Malfoy!  At least the chances of him kicking the bucket because of Voldemort are slim to none!'_

And with these thoughts on his mind, the sleepiness Harry had been suppressing all night got to him and he slowly closed his eyes, only to be unceremoniously waken three and a half hours later by Uncle Vernon shouting in his ear to come and fix breakfast.

As the week dragged on, Harry found that the reports given by the Prophet didn't improve.  Fifteen muggles who reported seeing oddly dressed people who perfectly matched the description of Voldemort and his Death Eaters all turned up dead, more wizarding families, the Akerleys and the Quirkes (both of whom, Harry knew, had children who would have been third year Ravenclaws had they lived), and the Abercrombies (whose son, Euan, would have been a second year Gryffindor) were all dead now, and even the muggle news was starting to pick up on all the strange killings.  The only good news was that Cornelius Fudge's official pardon of Sirius for all the crimes he was accused of committing would happen at Hogwarts on Harry's first night back.

_'But it seems so unfair that now that Sirius is finally being pardoned, he isn't alive to enjoy his freedom!'_ Thought Harry furiously as soon as he read the article about it.  He felt what they were doing would be like giving someone who'd been in poverty their entire life a large sum of cash right after they snuffed it.  He wondered what the point of pardoning someone after they'd died was.  The only benefit Harry could see was that Sirius wouldn't go down in history as having committed the horrible crime he'd been convicted of, and that it would show what idiots the vast majority of the Ministry had been.

And on the night before Lupin's arrival, as Harry frantically began to pack, he could have sworn he heard a little voice in his head telling him to be grateful for the present, and not grieve over the past, or worry about the future.  It sounded suspiciously like Sirius's voice.  Harry was certain that hearing voices was the first sign of insanity, but he listened to the voice's words anyway.

_'Come on Harry, you've got a lot to be thankful for right now!  Ron and his family haven't been killed, and neither have Hermione or hers.  Some Death Eaters are locked up, however temporarily, your safe, and whether Remus will be alive two or twenty years from now is moot point because right now he's healthy and in no more peril than you are.  And I did just say you were safe.  I know you have a lot on your shoulders, but don't lock yourself away from everyone, that just makes it worse,' _It was sounding A LOT like Sirius's voice now, but Harry would have been much more comforted if he could have actually seen his godfather to confirm that, _'And it's alright to be upset over last June, but not to this degree.  Tell someone how your feeling, ok?'_

_'Why can't I just tell you?' _Harry asked Sirius/The Voice.

_'Because I'm not exactly supposed to be doing this and the longer I do, the more chance I get in a bunch of trouble.  Back to what I was saying, once you accept the past you can move on to the future, and it would be better if you do that, Harry.  I'm not going to get any deader if my death stops being your every other thought.  So, don't shun Remus, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, or anyone else.  I wanna see good things from up here!' _there seemed to be a slight pause, as though Sirius's voice was pondering what to say, _'Oh, and tell old Snivellus that the 'Let go of the past' thing applies to him too.  He's gotta stop seeing people for what they were in 1975, yeesh.  And your parents send their love, and all the people from your school who've been killed wanted to contact you individually to tell you to kill Voldemort, but I thought I'd just do it all here.'_

_'How come my parents can't tell me themselves?' _Asked Harry, the memory of Snape's that he'd seen in the Pensieve still burned into his mind.

_'Well, this mysterious, disembodied voice contact thing seems to work better on people who've just died and wears off on those who've been here longer.  Mmm…I think someone's getting suspicious about what I'm doing, need to wrap this up!  Anyway Harry, I'm sorry that I'm dead, and I want you to know that even if I'm dead, I still support you and love you like a son.  I need to go, bye!'_

_'Wait!  Sirius!  I've still got some questions left!  SIRIUS!' _Harry shouted mentally, but a reply never came and in his stomach, Harry felt like he was losing Sirius all over again.  Still, it was slightly comforting to know that Sirius, his parents, and everyone from school who'd died were watching over him and supporting him, but Harry couldn't help feeling angry and sad again.  He threw the rest of his school materials furiously into his trunk, not caring that a few of his potion supplies had probably been cracked, completely broken, or smushed under the weight of his other things.  He knew he should do like Sirius said: Tell someone how he felt about all of this.  But they probably all knew what a foul mood he was in and would ask where this sudden insight came from.

_'And how am I supposed to tell them I heard Sirius's voice and he told me to?  They'll admit me to St. Mungo's and have my head examined before I can say anything else!  And tell Snape to drop his hatred of my father and his friends because that was 1975 and this is now?  Ha!  Maybe I will, just to see his reaction.' _Harry didn't know whether he should laugh at what Snape would probably do, or fear for his life.  

While he was pondering this, he suddenly remembered that he hadn't informed the Dursleys that Professor Lupin was coming to pick him up tomorrow.  Though, if his clothes were as shabby as they regularly were, Harry was certain that months of preparation wouldn't have readied the Dursleys for his appearance.  But regardless he went down to tell them anyway.

The three of them were huddled around the TV watching the news.  Uncle Vernon saw Harry and threw him a look that said he was clearly not welcome, and probably thought that Harry had come down to watch the news, because that's what he'd tried to do all last summer, "What do you want, boy?"

"Well, tomorrow Professor Lupin-he'll be teaching at Hog…er, my school-is coming to pick me up for it," said Harry nervously, hoping they wouldn't overreact too much.

Aunt Petunia eyed him shiftily, "I thought that term of yours didn't start until September 1st," she finished, clearly suspicious.

Harry was shocked.  Since when did Aunt Petunia pay attention to those kinds of things?  But he decided it wouldn't be wise to point out, so he replied, "Well, they're taking me early because, see…" Harry was at a loss for words.  Why did they want him to come to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place when he was safe while with blood relatives and it was only going to be July 21st?  But he knew he needed a reason otherwise he wouldn't be going, "They uh…that's to say, the members of the Order of the Phoenix, don't want your lives endangered because you're housing me," Harry finished triumphantly.

"Let him go," Grunted Uncle Vernon.

But Aunt Petunia still looked suspicious, "Who are the 'Order of the Phoenix'?" she demanded.

"They're a group that stands against Voldemort."

"And why are you going with them?  You don't seem like you could stand against a fluffy bunny rabbit," laughed Dudley.

"Well, they don't want your," Harry gave a cough that sounded a bit like a snicker, "_precious_ lives endangered and-" he stopped.  He didn't really want to tell the Dursleys about the prophecy.

"And what, boy?" demanded Uncle Vernon.

"Nothing," Harry said, feigning innocence.

"I asked you and what?!" snapped Uncle Vernon, clearly annoyed.

"It's none of your business.  It's concerning me anyway, so what would you care?" asked Harry causally.

"AND WHAT?!" bellowed Uncle Vernon.

"Maybe I just accidentally said 'and'.  Maybe it doesn't mean anything," said Harry shrugging.

Uncle Vernon grabbed him and began shaking him, "TELL ME WHAT YOU WERE ABOUT TO SAY!" he shouted, his face turning an ugly shade of purple.

"Fine!  The whole world is doomed because a prophecy said I'm the only one who can defeat Voldemort!  Are you happy now?!" snarled Harry.

He was expecting the Dursleys to laugh him off, or not care that the world's fate rested with him as long as they were safe.  He would have been astonished if they'd looked mildly worried, so he certainly wasn't expecting the silence that ensnared the room after he finished speaking.  Dudley was looking at him with a mixture of awe and slight anger that if he couldn't kill someone, then everyone was screwed over.  Aunt Petunia was shaking and Uncle Vernon was trying calm her down, though he looked like he needed calming down himself.

"I just thought I'd let you know that Professor Lupin was coming," murmured Harry, slowly retreating back to his room.

The next day seemed to drag on forever as Harry waited for Professor Lupin's arrival.  He was glad someone familiar would be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, and not a new person who could have had the potential to be worse than Dolores Umbridge ("The Hogwarts High Inquisitor") had been.  On the day of the arrival though, Harry was more desperate than ever to get away from Privet Drive.  After last night's conversation, the Dursleys were acting strange, even for them.  They avoided eye contact, didn't expect Harry to get them coffee, or fry the eggs for breakfast, and didn't hand him any lists of chores to be completed before he was allowed to go with Professor Lupin.  

In fact, Harry might as well have not been there at all.  He suspected the only reason they even gave him breakfast was so he wouldn't complain to anyone about his treatment.  In a way, the "silent treatment" was comforting, but in a more overpowering way, it was just creepy.  The Dursleys didn't even talk among themselves, as they usually did when they were busy trying to pretend Harry didn't exist.  He walked back up to his room after breakfast and leaned down to see if he could hear a conversation.  There was none.  This just added to the feeling of oddness.  Even when Harry wasn't around, they kept their silence. 

_'Please have an excuse to come early, Lupin!  I never thought I'd say this, but I can't bare the Dursleys NOT talking!'_

But Lupin didn't come early, so Harry busied himself thinking of the topics he'd discuss with Lupin once he arrived, and with Ron and Hermione once he got to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place.  He even got so bored, he began to imagine what it would be like to teach at Hogwarts, and imagined how each teacher came up with lesson plans (Professor Snape's consisted of "Tell the students about the wonders of potions, be sure to use and emphasize the words 'softly' and 'simmering' when speaking about cauldrons.  Write the directions to a new potion on the board every morning.  Be a general git, pain-in-the-arse, and bear down on unfavored students, especially Harry Potter.  Rinse.  Repeat").

Before Harry knew it, it was six o' clock in the evening, _'I guess I passed time pretty well, considering the circumstances,' _he thought.

Harry looked out the window for a few moments, and then  realized (Once he heard Aunt Petunia screech, breaking the silence that Harry was beginning to think meant that the Dursleys had joined up with an "End-of-the-World" cult and been given a vow of silence.) that Professor Lupin had arrived by floo powder.  He ran down the stairs, only to see that Professor Lupin wasn't alone.  He was accompanied by one of Harry's least favorite people in the world: The sallow skinned, greasy-haired, hook-nosed Potions Master and head of Slytherin, Professor Severus Snape.


	2. Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

Chapter two, peeps, chapter two.  S'all I have to say.  Oh, and the part of the summary that was cut off is meant to say that anyone who can think of a better title for the story gets a cameo.

Heero: That's a first.  The death in Book Five must really have her downtrodden.  She usually talks a mile a minute in author notes.

**_Harry Potter and the Mystery of the Veil_**

**_Year 6 at Hogwarts_**

**_Weasley's Wizard Wheezes_**

**__**

            Harry couldn't help staring with his mouth agape as Professor Snape got out of the fireplace, getting dust all over the floor and gave the shaking Aunt Petunia a sneer.  Professor Lupin walked out of the fireplace as well, apologizing politely for getting the floor dirty.  Uncle Vernon, upon hearing Aunt Petunia's shriek came rushing down the stairs with an antique rifle.

            "What is it Petunia, dear?!  Is that freak here?!" he asked, head turning wildly in all directions before his vision finally rested on Lupin and Snape.  But instead of interrogating them, he turned quickly to glare at Harry, as though concerned he may catch a disease if he looked at the two professors too long, "Boy!  I thought you said only one…of those…p-p-peo-" he seemed to be having great difficulty getting out the word 'people'.

            "Do you have a stuttering problem, muggle?" asked Snape snidely.  Harry felt the first impulse to try and like Snape that he'd ever had in his years at Hogwarts.  He saw Lupin trying to hide a snicker by pretending he needed to cough.

            Uncle Vernon shook slightly, but seemed determined not to look at Snape, "Well boy?!" he demanded, "Answer me when I'm speaking to you!"

            "I didn't know Professor Snape was coming," said Harry shrugging.

            "It's my fault," said Lupin stepping forward, "a few days ago, the Order decided that it would be safer if it were two people instead of one in case someone messed with the floo network and we ended up somewhere…undesirable.  I didn't think it would be too big a deal."

            Uncle Vernon seemed to take the hint that out of Lupin and Snape, Lupin was far more passive, so he turned on the werewolf, "Well next time you'll know!  In fact, I'd rather have you just take him right now and keep him with you next summer!  I am sick and tired of freaks like him always coming out of fireplaces and parading around like they own the place!  It's too much!" now that he was in rant-mode, Uncle Vernon seemed much surer of himself.

            "What do you mean 'always'?" snapped Harry, wishing the affair could be wrapped up, and he could leave, "The only other time anyone's done this is when the Weasleys came to pick me up for the Quidditch World Cup two years ago!"

            "Shut up boy!  If I ever want a fact on you or your freak world, I'll ask you!"

            "V-Vernon…" muttered Aunt Petunia in a warning tone, because Snape looked quite outraged.  Harry dearly hoped he would turn his aunt and uncle into slugs.  But despite Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon plowed along on his rant about 'stupid magic' and 'robe-wearing freaks'.  It seemed to Harry that he'd come up with this rant long ago, memorized it, and was eager to finally be using it.

            "I assure you muggle," Snape said silkily (with what seemed like barely contained anger), interrupting Uncle Vernon, "we wizards and witches don't think of you as too normal yourselves.  But at least it's only psycho extremists among us who would hold the exact opinion about muggles as you hold about us.  It IS, after all, true that people of all kinds fear what they don't understand," he finished softly, with a look of grim satisfaction at Uncle Vernon's outraged expression.

            "Fear you?!  You honestly think I would _fear _you?!  I'll show you who's to be feared!" roared Uncle Vernon.  And then he actually fired his rifle right at Snape, and then another bullet right at Lupin.  Harry felt horrified, then relieved when both men preformed Shield Charms and the bullets rolled away on the floor, useless.  Aunt Petunia was backing away from Lupin, as though afraid that he might hex her, and Uncle Vernon had gone rather pale.

            "That's your stuff there, isn't it Harry?" asked Lupin softly, pointing at Harry's trunk and Hedwig in her cage, which Harry had brought when he heard Aunt Petunia scream.  Harry nodded, "We'd better go then.  Don't want Snape to kill your relatives," he said winking.

            "I might prefer it if he did," replied Harry with a grin in a low voice, so only Lupin could hear.  Lupin grinned right back.

            "We should be going then, Severus," Lupin said loudly enough so the other man could hear.

            "Good.  It'd really be too bad if I completely shattered these muggles' thoughts of superiority over wizard kind," said Snape sarcastically, his lip curling, "I'll go first, then Potter, then you come Lupin."

            Lupin nodded as Snape disappeared into the flames, and handed Harry a handful of floo powder.  Harry got into the fireplace, throwing the floo powder down as he did so, saying a loud, clear voice, "Number Twelve Grimmauld Place!"

            Harry nearly tripped as he got out of the fireplace at Grimmauld Place, just managing to catch himself before he did so.  Snape had walked off somewhere, apparently satisfied that the floo network hadn't been tampered with, and Lupin stepped out of the fireplace soon after Harry.  

            "Alright, Harry?" asked Lupin, since Harry was still dawdling around the library near the fireplace instead of going to see Hermione, Ron, and the other Weasleys.

            "Eh…yeah, I'm fine.  I was just…remembering, away from everyone," Harry looked around sadly at the library thinking about how it had just been last March that he'd snuck into Umbridge's office and been able to speak to Sirius and Lupin about his father's behavior in Snape's Pensieve, _'And I was supposed to as Snape for Occlumency lessons again…but I never did.  And that's why Sirius is dead,' _thought Harry with pang, starting to feel a familiar sinking feeling in his stomach again.

            Lupin seemed to realize what Harry was thinking because he put a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder, "Sirius's death isn't your fault."

            "You guys said I should ask Snape for Occlumency lessons again, but I never did.  Hermione pestered me about it too, but I've barely looked at Snape since I said-since when I said in Umbridge's office and I gave him the message that I had th-that dream."

            Lupin nodded, "You should have pursued Occlumency, but that doesn't make it entirely your fault."

            "Well who else did anything?!" snapped Harry.

            "For one, Snape shouldn't have been so rash about refusing to give you anymore Occlumency lessons.  Kreacher the house elf gave away information to the Malfoys.  The Ministry of Magic as a whole wouldn't have taken any evidence of Sirius's innocence, even if we'd given it to them, they were having a rocky enough time without acknowledging they'd put an innocent man in Azkaban for twelve years.  They wouldn't have even cleared him today if a guard who'd heard the Death Eaters' confession hadn't threatened to spill the beans himself.  It's also the fault of myself and the other members of the Order," Lupin suddenly looked very weary, "I think if we would have done more to keep him occupied and not just expected him to lay around doing nothing…" he trailed off.

            Harry put his hands to his face, and deciding that the topic of Sirius would only make for an awkward conversation pursued a related topic, "I hate the Ministry of Magic.  They should've done so much more."

            "I believe they got too complacent in the time that we had peace.  Things were easy and all they needed to worry about was something as insignificant as cauldron bottoms.  And then when this started happening, they didn't want to believe it was true, because they were in no way prepared."

            "Well that was stupid of them.  We could've already weakened Voldemort a lot if they'd have stopped pretending he didn't exist until only recently."

            "Yes, it could have.  But unfortunately," Lupin gave a shadow of a smile, "history has a nasty way of pulling the human race as a whole in the direction entirely opposite of where we want to go."

            Harry groaned, "Don't I know it."

            And, to his amazement, Lupin started to laugh, and so did he.

            After that, Harry met Mrs. Weasley in one of the corridors and she told him that Hermione and Ron were upstairs with Ginny in the room where the girls slept.  He hurried up to talk to them.

            "Hiya Harry!" said Ron excitedly when he opened the room's oak door.

            "Hi Ron," and looking into the room, he saw Hermione and Ginny having a conversation about fifth year O.W.L.s ("Don't worry, they're really easy if you study hard for them!" Hermione assured Ginny).

            "Oh, there you are Harry!" cried Hermione getting up with Ginny, "Snape was walking past here awhile ago, where were you?"

            "I was talking to Lupin."

            "He's going to be our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher again, isn't he?" asked Ginny.

            "Yep.  I'm glad because it looks like we'll finally have a good teacher again," replied Ron.

            "How many O.W.L.s did you get Harry?" Hermione asked promptly, "I got all of mine, but I still only got an Exceeds Expectations in Astronomy," she said frowning.

            "I got seven of them, I missed Divination and History of Magic," responded Harry in an off-handed way.

            "I got six," Ron informed them, "I missed Divination, History of Magic, and Potions.  Barely scraped one for Astronomy, though.  They shouldn't have counted that huge disruption against our time."

            "You should have worked harder before the distraction," said Hermione pursing her lips.  Harry saw that Ron seemed to want to inform her that she'd only gotten Exceeds Expectations in Astronomy instead of Outstanding, but apparently thought better of it.

            Ginny sidled up to Harry and whispered in his ear, "Ron and Hermione just decided to start going out," she giggled.  Harry let a large smile come onto his face.

            "Ginny!" Ron groaned.

            "Well you couldn't exactly hide it forever," she said defensively, "Besides, Harry should know what you're doing.  He's your friend too." Harry felt immensely grateful that Ginny had told him, yet was slightly angry.

            "So you just weren't going to tell me?  You were just going to disappear together whenever you felt like it and expect me to be fine not even knowing what you were doing for certain?  I told YOU guys last year when I was going to go out with Cho" he said, raising his eyebrows at his friends, trying to keep his temper in check.

            Hermione sighed, "Oh Harry, don't make it sound so incriminating.  We just wanted to keep it as much to ourselves as we could."

            "Yeah.  Mum doesn't even know yet.  I reckon she'd hyperventilate while she was shaking with excitement trying to get a word in.  We'd kind of like to see if it works out first before my entire family swarms on her," said Ron with half a smile, "So it's nothing personal."

            Harry felt slightly better, but remembered that they hadn't kept it entirely to themselves, "If you were keeping it to yourselves, why did Ginny know?" It came out much more accusatory than Harry would have liked.

            "I guessed," said Ginny simply, "and I've been sworn to secrecy."

            Harry knew that he'd lost his case, but felt better knowing that it wasn't like his two best friends had rushed around to everyone saying, "We're going out, but don't tell Harry because his tiny mind couldn't possibly handle it." and smiled at his friends, "Well, good luck then."

            "Ron will be studying much harder this year," Hermione said proudly.  Ron groaned.

            "But we don't have anything major this year.  N.E.W.T.s isn't until next year," he complained.

            "Yes, but it's really so much harder than O.W.L.s or at least that's what Ron's brothers have told me, so we should probably start studying this year if we want the best marks," Hermione informed them.

            Harry was tiring of the subject of school and studying and didn't want Hermione and Ron to have a row about it, "I think since Umbridge is gone, I should be able to play Quidditch again, shouldn't I?" he said loudly.

            "Oh yeah, that's right!" said Ron, brightening up considerably, "You will.  And Ginny's going to be a chaser or the team this fall!"

            "But we'll still need two more chasers," Ginny reminded him, "and I really wouldn't mind getting rid of our beaters and trying to kind better ones…but unless they resign..." she muttered sighing.

            "Yeah, but we'll train them," Ron said waving her off, "and you know what?  McGonagall owled me and said I'm going to be our new captain!"

            "Ron, that's great!" said Harry, sincerely meaning it.

            "Yeah.  McGonagall said she heard about how I was the one to get past her giant chess set in first year, which I think impressed her because she says I must have a good sense of strategy," Ron said proudly.

            "Too bad he hasn't got a studying strategy half as good," said Hermione mournfully.

            Later in the evening, Mrs. Weasley called them down to let them know that dinner was ready.  When Harry got to the table, he saw the entire Weasley family (minus Percy, who was apparently still sore about last year's affairs), Fleur Delacour, Lupin, Tonks, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonk's sister, Rhonda, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Snape, Mundungus Fletcher, and some people Harry was sure hadn't been in the Order last year and seemed to have brought along their young children with them.  Harry noted silently that a seat where Sirius had usually sat remained respectfully empty.

            "Mum, who are these people?" asked Ginny, pointing to the people Harry didn't know either.

            "They're new members of the Order, and I'll introduce you when we're all settled down," she said absentmindedly as she grabbed dishes of food sitting on the cupboard and moved them onto the table.

            Harry sat down on the right of Lupin, Ron sat by him, and Hermione and Ginny sat on Tonk's left side.  Mrs. Weasley finally brought the last food dish (A cherry pie) onto the table and sat down.  She encouraged everyone to start eating and began to do so herself.

            "Mum!" said Ginny loudly over all the clanging forks and spoons, "You said you'd introduce the new people to us!"

            "Ah yes, I think your father knows more of them than I do, so Arthur, if you'd please introduce them to everyone…"

            "You don't need to do that," said a grinning man whose teeth were straight and very white who also had hair that seemed almost bluish, "We can introduce ourselves, Molly.  I'm Calix Zondermann, that's my wife, Leona, and our daughter, Ava who'll be starting Hogwarts this year," as he looked at them, Harry noticed that Ava was blushing heavily and seemed to be sinking down in her seat as everyone introduced themselves to her smiling parents.

            Harry decided to eat his food before it got cold, but listened enough to learn the names of the other people who'd joined the Order: Valencia Ivy, a woman in her late twenties who studied the human mind, Mikhail Purge and his eight year old son, Ivan (Whose mother had been killed by Death Eaters when she was visiting another family), a seventeen year old witch who had been away on travel when her family was killed named Calypso Juniper, Braggart Stonen, a man about Snape's and Lupin's age who had spied against Voldemort in the first war and would tell anyone who listened about his brave resistance to give information when the Cruciatus Curse was used against him after he was discovered (Though Snape put in softly that he could have sworn he remembered the event in a far less glorious light), and Aradia Malrose, along with her twelve year old son, Kenna (A Ravenclaw) and her eleven year old daughter, Neona who would start Hogwarts this year with Ava.  Mrs. Malrose's husband worked in the Ministry of Magic and didn't like the idea of the Order of the Phoenix, so she and her children had taken off while he was at work and tried to make it look like there had been a struggle at the house and as though they had been forcibly taken somewhere.

            When Harry felt as though he'd burst if he ate any more food, he looked around at everyone else.  It seemed like he hadn't been the only one eating while the others were talking.  Ginny, Ron, Fred, George, Tonks, Lupin, Mundungus, and Snape also seemed to be finished, but Hermione at least, had given the speakers rapt attention and was now frowning at her cold food.  And then Harry saw a familiar looking house elf limp in.  His heart swelled with hate at the house elf before him.  It was Kreacher, the Black family's old house elf, whom was partly responsible for Sirius's death.  Harry felt a strong impulse to punt the elf out one of the windows.

            Kreacher made a slight coughing noise, "Was Mrs. Blood-Traitor Weasley wanting help cleaning up the dishes, or making tomorrow's breakfast?  Kreacher may help with that," and then under his breath, he muttered, "Kreacher will poison the food…Kreacher will leave the dishes dirty…Kreacher doesn't need to serve these people now that heir is dead and all that's left are heir's half blood second cousins, he can go serve the Malfoys…but Kreacher should kill these people for mistress…yes, Kreacher will kill them for mistress and laugh at foolish dead heir…" Kreacher chuckled to himself.

            Harry looked down and realized he had had his hands clenched in fists so hard that his knuckles were rather white.  Before he thought about it, he shifted in his chair, was half way standing up, and would've lunged at Kreacher if Ron hadn't grabbed his shoulder and pushed him down, "Easy mate, he does this every night.  I know he's an annoying little creep, but Dumbledore says we should try to show him respect," Ron muttered into Harry's ear.

            "I'll respect his wish to have his head on a plaque next to his mum's if he doesn't shut up," grumbled Harry through gritted teeth.

            Kreacher seemed to notice Harry's infuriated expression, as he commenced muttering to himself again, oblivious to the fact that anyone with half an ear could hear him, "Potter boy is angry at Kreacher…but one of the blood traitors is making him sit down…Kreacher hopes Potter boy gets to see dead heir again in afterlife very soon as much as Potter boy hopes Kreacher will get his head on a plaque…Kreacher hopes that all blood traitors, the mudblood, and the half-breed see dead heir soon, too…Kreacher will help them if he may poison their food…Mistress would be very proud of Kreacher…" these thoughts made Kreacher rather eerily giddy, and he showed them all a toothless smile.

            "I think I can handle it myself, Kreacher," said Mrs. Weasley loudly, interrupting his monologue.

            "Yes, and if she can't _I _will help her," said Tonks firmly, "So you just go to that so-called room of yours and be a good elf.  DO NOT leave the premises, or go near the fireplaces!" she ordered him.

            Kreacher scowled at her, "Yes, New Mistress," and then once again under his breath he mumbled, "Little missy thinks herself so mighty to order Kreacher around…But Kreacher must listen to her because she is related to Kreacher's beloved Mistress and her foolish dead heir…Kreacher will kill her as well…Then Kreacher needs to serve no one in this house and he can truly go to the Malfoys…" he hobbled off to his room, probably still mumbling about how he could kill Tonks.

            "Ugh, that house elf," muttered Tonks, "I swear, it'll be much less trouble if we just kill it," Harry couldn't have agreed more.  He'd have volunteered to man the axe if anyone had asked.

            Lupin frowned, "As much as I'd like to…"

            But he was cut off by Hermione, "I know Kreacher has done some rather awful things," Harry gave a snort, and noted that he wasn't the only one, "but we should give him love, care and respect.  I'm sure he'd be much nicer if we did that."

            "We've been trying," griped George, "and he's as bad as ever, if not worse!"

            "Now he just thinks we're gullible!" whined Fred.

            "You call contributing to Sirius's death and giving away information on the Order just 'rather awful'?" snapped Harry.

            "That thing is someone else's death waiting to happen!" agreed Mundungus Fletcher grimly. 

            "When's it ever done us a favor?" asked Ron.

            "With that kind of attitude, why would it?" Charlie asked them sternly.  Harry knew Charlie was rather attached to magical creatures, dragon in particular, so he wasn't especially surprised that he was sticking up for Kreacher.

            "You're missing the point, Charlie," said Fred.

            "The point is that when we do that, he's exactly the same, except he thinks we're stupid and mumbles louder than usual," George said folding his arms.

            "Now we can't just murder him in cold blood…" Mr. Weasley said in such a way that gave everyone the impression that he was more on the twins' side of the argument then he would have them believe.

            "We'll just tell him he can be with his dear mum," said George glaring at anyone who opposed his view of the subject, "He won't object to it, I bet."

            "Enough.  Dumbledore has told us to be kind to Kreacher and that's what we'll do.  Now let's discuss something else, like O.W.L.s, how many did you get Harry, dear?" asked Mrs. Weasley.

            A few days after the event, Harry found that the pain of waking up and knowing where he was lessened every day.  He even had a pretty good birthday there, with what had to be more presents than he'd ever received before.  When Harry woke up on this particular morning, he felt like he was back at Privet Drive because of some unceasing pecking on the window, _'I don't really want another letter from some person pretending to be upset about everything that happened to Sirius,' _thought Harry, lounging back on his pillow.  He was very close to falling asleep again, when he realized with a jolt that he wasn't at Privet Drive, but at Grimmauld Place where none of his rabid admirers could track him, so he hurried to open the window for the agitated owl.  The owl hooted angrily and dropped several letters right on Harry's head before flying out the window and leaving without another sound. 

 Harry saw that the letters appeared to be his, Ron's, Ginny's, Hermione's, and Kenna's list of school supplies and the Hogwarts acceptance letters for Ava and Neona.  He ripped his open and found that he needed more new books this year than he had ever needed before in any year except, of course, first.

He shook Ron and said, "Hey Ron, our Hogwarts letters are here!"

Ron mumbled something, but didn't wake up.  Harry shook him harder until his eyes finally snapped open, "Blimey Harry…is the house on fire or something?" he murmured, still half asleep.

Harry was beginning to feel as agitated as that post owl, "_No _Ron, our Hogwarts letters are here!  Look at all the new books we're gonna need!"

"Ugh…school?  So soon?  It's only August first.  They just can't have sent the letters already…"

Harry waved the letter addressed to 'Ronald Weasley' in Ron's face before the red-headed boy could fall asleep again, and was rather satisfied when his friend snapped to attention seeing that he needed seven new course books, "Wow.  We might have a hard time affording this stuff.  Fred and George didn't have this many, I'm sure of it."

Harry checked his list again, "I've got eight new ones.  It must depend on how many O.W.L.s you got, because that's how many subjects you'll take this year."

"Yeah.  You need one for every N.E.W.T. subject you take, and then there's that new "Standard Book of Spells" for year 6.  I don't see the point in those anymore, we barely use them.  Anyway, we should get Hermione's, Ginny's, and Kenna's supply lists to them and give these Hogwarts acceptance letters to those kids' parents.  Woah…Hermione's got eleven new books, hope her parents have given her plenty of money."

"Let's go to Diagon Alley and get this shopping done with," said Mrs. Weasley when Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny showed her their letters, "I'd hate to have a scenario where we forgot until the last minute," she said nervously.

"Kreacher could come with you to help," offered Kreacher in what he seemed to be hoping was a helpful, enthusiastic, cheery voice.  To Harry it sounded more like he was hyperventilating and breathing in helium while trying to speak.  Of course, he once again to mutter darkly under his breath, "Kreacher is going to cause havoc and blame the mudblood…Maybe Kreacher will do something to injure or kill someone and blame the mudblood so she goes to Azkaban…The mudblood is greatly annoying Kreacher…"

"And you're greatly annoying everyone else!" growled Ron, "Don't you call her that name again!"

"The blood traitor thinks he can order Kreacher around…Kreacher finds this amusing…Kreacher will find it even more amusing when the blood traitors are all dead…" Kreacher muttered lowly.

"We should be able to get all of it alright, Kreacher," Mrs. Weasley responded, looking as though she wanted very much to be able to mouth off to the house elf as easily as Ron could.  Kreacher gave her a glare, but saw Tonks stopping her conversation with Lupin across the room to give him an even stronger one, and scuttled off into the shadows.

            As they were about to leave by way of floo powder, Leona Zondermann suddenly rushed up with Ava, Kenna, and Neona, "Could we come with you Molly?  They need to get their supplies and Aradia thinks it'd be less conspicuous if her husband is looking for her if we brought Kenna and Neona along with us instead."

            "Hey mum, we need to get to work too!" yelled Fred with George at his side.

            Mrs. Weasley gave them a disapproving look, "Your joke shop is supposed to be open at eight o' clock.  It's nine thirty, boys.  After your breakfast at seven, you said you were leaving."

            "Yeah, but we had a great new idea and we were planning it!" insisted George.

            "And our employees have keys!" Fred said, and then in a tone of voice that wasn't at all embarrassed, he added, "They're kind of used to this."

            Mrs. Weasley shook her head, "Oh honestly…well then, you should go in first boys," Fred went in first, then George.  Once they were out of sight Mrs. Weasley turned to Harry, "I don't want you to feel bad Harry dear, but it might have been better if you'd used your money from the Triwizard Tournament to something like your school books instead of giving it to Fred and George.  They don't seem entirely serious about this joke shop of theirs."

            "It's a joke shop, they aren't supposed to be serious," Ginny said in defense of Fred and George.

            Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips in the same way Hermione had a tendency to, and didn't comment any further on the joke shop, "Well then, why don't you go first Leona?  Then you Ava, after that Kenna, Neona, Ginny, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and myself in that order."

            After Ginny left for Diagon Alley, Harry took a handful of floo powder and directed a nervous look at the fireplace.  He didn't really mind traveling by floo powder, except the last time he'd tried to go to Diagon Alley by it, he'd ended up in the sinister Knockturn Alley instead.  He shook his head, knowing that it wouldn't be good to get jitters now, "Diagon Alley!" he yelled stepping into the fireplace, being very careful to enunciate every syllable.

            Harry was relieved to find himself safely in Diagon Alley when he came out of the fireplace.  He saw everyone that'd gone in before standing together waiting and walked over to join them.  It wasn't long before Hermione, Ron, and Mrs. Weasley appeared as well.

            "We're all here safely then?" asked Mrs. Weasley, who began to count heads.  Once satisfied, she collected everyone's supplies list and looked down at them, "Ok, I can get the books for everyone in Flourish and Blotts because I had a new book to pick up there anyway, and Harry and Hermione will need some fresh supplies for N.E.W.T. Potions, but it says you can just ask the man at the counter of a store called 'Boiling Cauldrons' for sixth year supplies and he should know what you mean.  Other than those things, you're all set," she gave Ginny about fifteen silver sickles for pocket change, in case they wanted to buy something else.  Mrs. Zondermann took Ava and Neona to "Madame Malkin's Robes For All Occasions" and was then planning to take them to Ollivander's for their wands, which left Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny alone with Kenna.

            "I've heard about that 'Boiling Cauldrons' place," Kenna piped up, eager to start a conversation, "Mum told me last year not to go near it because some real shifty people come through there!"

            "Well, it's Snape.  I'd worry if he told you guys to get it from some spick-and-span perfect place," Ron said reassuringly to Hermione, who looked like she had also heard of "Boiling Cauldrons" and wouldn't have touched its door with a five-foot pole if she were being paid ten thousand gold galleons to do so.

            "It's in Knockturn Alley!" cried Ginny, sounding outraged.

            "How would you know if it's in Knockturn Alley?" asked Kenna with an interested expression on his face.

            Harry smiled at Ginny, "Yeah…you know, you weren't the one who accidentally fell there on her first trip with floo powder," he finished good-naturedly, noting Ron getting into 'protective brother' mode.

            "Gin, Knockturn Alley is a dangerous place," Ron said warningly, making it sound as though if he ever heard something that gave a clue to the fact that she'd been in Knockturn Alley again, he'd be far more dangerous than it.

            "Oh it was only once!" she snapped.

            "When?!" demanded Ron.

            "For me to know and you to find out," Ginny responded curtly.

            "Well," said Harry loudly over the noise of passing wizards, "we should probably go to get the experience over with."

            Hermione nodded, "It's more light out now anyway, the later it is when we go there, the more packed it'll be," she stated matter-of-factly.

            "Good point," agreed Ron.

            "I can't wait!" said Kenna grinning excitedly as though he was about to have the time of his life.

            "We aren't sticking around, though," said Harry to calm the over-eager boy.

            "It really is pretty creepy," Ginny admitted.

            Kenna frowned as they walked closer to its entrance, "Oh come on!  Harry, you faced You-Know-Who!  How much worse can Knockturn Alley be?"

            "The point isn't that I _could _do it, the point is that I won't," grumbled Harry.  Since this didn't seem to have much of an effect on Kenna, he decided to elaborate, "If everyone went around doing things just because they could, the world would be full of gits, and you'd likely be hexed by one every two steps."

            "I was hexed once!  Draco Malfoy put the Impedimentia curse on me when I was walking toward this spot along the shore of the lake where he wanted to sit with that Pansy Parkinson girl," Kenna made a face.

            Hermione made a 'tsk' sound, "How did such a bully get to be prefect?"

            "Well, looking at the likes of Crabbe, Goyle, and Millicent Bulstrode Malfoy seems like a bloody genius, and a semi-saint," Harry replied, a vision of Malfoy kneeling in prayer flooding his mind and making him snicker a bit.

            "Pretty much.  Pansy Parkinson though, she's a scarlet woman if I've ever seen one," Ron muttered.  Ginny, Hermione, and Harry laughed out loud, and Kenna gave a loud guffaw, which got the attention of quite a few wizards and witches around them.  Ron frowned, "What?"

            "S-scarlet woman!" cried Ginny through her laughter, "You can just say it outright you know, Ron.  Mum isn't around!"

            Ron's frown grew deeper, "I'm beginning to worry about what you do when mum isn't around, Ginny," he said seriously.

            "Fred and George are very proud of me," Ginny replied, just as seriously.

            "They would be," Ron snorted.

            "I think Ginny can take of herself, Ron, and so can I," Hermione said to her boyfriend, raising both eyebrows.  When they had entered Knockturn Alley, Ron had taken a firm grip on both their hands and glared at anyone who gave the group a passing glance.

            "I bet Harry can hold onto Ginny's hand and neither one would mind!" chirped Kenna brightly, with a mischievous grin on his face.

            Harry was about to protest the young boy's allegation, but Ginny spoke up quicker, "Harry and I are just friends, and however I acted when I was your age doesn't matter," she said, with a slight blush creeping onto her face as she seemed to be thinking about herself at twelve, sending Harry singing get well cards while he was in the hospital wing after a Quidditch match.  Harry remembered distinctly that he'd needed to put the card under a bowl of fruit to make it shut up.

            "Well this is it," said Hermione nervously.  Harry looked up at what appeared, on first impression to be a large, misshapen black glob.  Upon closer inspection, Harry realized it was supposed to be a large cauldron.  A sign in simple print that said 'Boiling Cauldrons' that hung in place at the building's east corner promptly fell off.

            "Welcoming," said Kenna sarcastically, looking, for the first time, slightly fearful.

            When the group walked inside, Harry glanced at the floor, only to see a cockroach emerge from one of the many cracks in a wall that had once been painted a bright blue color checkered with white, but now resembled the scribbling of a four-year-old who'd used every color in his crayons box.  The floor appeared to have once had the same pattern as the wall, but now appeared to be covered in substances of all kinds, including what looked a bit like blood.  Harry's heart beat a little faster.  Trust Professor Snape to want them to get supplies from somewhere like this.

            "Excuse me," said Hermione sweetly to a man at a cheap wooden counter, appearing determined not to look around her at the store's state of disrepair, "we need some sixth year supplies.  For Hogwarts," she elaborated.

            The man gave her a confused look, "Well, what sort of supplies do you need?"

            Ron pointed to Harry and Hermione, "They were told that all they needed to do was ask for sixth year supplies and you'd know what they meant."

            The man groaned, "I'll ask my boss what I can do for you," and he disappeared into a door behind the counter.

            Kenna started moving his head in all directions, his eyes twinkling, as though he couldn't get enough of the store, "This is so cool!  Or…I think 'cool' is what the muggles call something amazing."

            Ginny pointed to the spot on the floor Harry had noticed earlier, "Is that blood?!" she asked, her voice getting slightly panicky.

            Ron turned a bit pale, "It  could just be some sort of ingredient that looks red…"

            "No, no…this is definitely blood," said Hermione, leaning down to give it a closer look.  

            Kenna's grin only got wider, "This place is so interesting!" and then he glanced down at the blood himself, "I wonder how that blood got there, though," he finished in an undertone.

            "Fancy finding out first hand about the way blood splatters on a floor?" came a drawling voice behind them.

            Harry froze immediately.  He knew the person behind them was Draco Malfoy, who had threatened at the end of last year to kill him.  He knew that Knockturn Alley was a dodgy place…it was the perfect place, in fact, to attack someone without being stopped.  But Harry wasn't really that concerned about Malfoy, "Keep an eye on him, but just ignore him," he whispered to the others.

            "Hellooooo Potter, have you gone deaf?  You too, mudblood, weasels?  Or maybe you're all just stupid!" Malfoy said with laughter in his voice.

            "What'd they do to you?!" asked Kenna furiously, turning on Malfoy.  Harry could've smacked the twelve-year-old.

            "Oh, so one of you can hear!" he said triumphantly, "Well, make sign language or whatever to your hearing impaired buddies and tell them Malfoy isn't happy with them.  Then say that Malfoy's going to kill you if they don't face me, the shameless cowards.  Oh, and add that Malfoy says the weasels' mother is a bloated pig, and their father is a muggle-loving nutcase."

            This caused Ginny to twitch a bit and Ron to turn around immediately and, before Malfoy could react, punch him in the stomach, "At least my family is decent!  You don't find any Death Eaters locked in Azkaban when you look at _my _family!  Yours, however-"

            "Ok kids, here you go, two sixth year supplies packs," came the man at the counter's annoyed voice.

            Hermione quickly grabbed Ron's arm, took one of the supply packs and handed the other one to Harry.  She then quickly ushered them all out the door.  Kenna was looking around Knockturn Alley some more and seemed to want to dawdle, however Hermione would have none of that, and put him immediately ahead of her so she could push him whenever he stopped to look at something.  They walked in silence all the way out of Knockturn Alley, but this was probably good, Harry reflected, because silent people were much less likely to attract unwanted attention.

            As soon as they were safely back in Diagon Alley, Ron burst, "That Malfoy!  I swear, I wouldn't care if I got locked in Azkaban for a while if I could just use the Cruciatus Curse on him!  He's been begging for it forever!"

            "I wish we could.  At least our mum isn't a stuck-up, evil, snobby woman!" grumbled Ginny.

            "He's a complete moron," Hermione agreed, "but if you look at it closely, you learn that he should be pitied.  He's nothing but a pathetic product of his environment."

            "Are you comparing him to Kreacher?  Because I'd rather spend two years alone with Kreacher as opposed to inviting Malfoy over for tea and biscuits," Ron said darkly.

            "I wouldn't pity Malfoy if a two-ton anvil fell on him," said Harry folding his arms, "I'd start celebrating."

            Hermione chewed her lip, "I just wish sometimes that he'd wake up and see that he's only his father's shadow and start looking at things from our point of view."

            Ron snorted, "The day Malfoy turns into a good guy will be the day Percy finally apologizes everyone and dad's made Minister of Magic on top of it."

            "If dad was made Minister of Magic of course Percy would apologize," Ginny muttered, "He wouldn't want to be out of good graces with the Minister."

            "Who's Percy?  Who's Percy?" asked Kenna.

            "Percy is Ron and Ginny's older brother," Harry explained lamely.

            "And he's a right turncoat, he is," snapped Ron, "You'd think after he knew it was really true that V-Vo-Voldemort had returned, he'd apologize to all of us, but no!  Now he's probably just sulking because he was wrong and we were right all along!"

            "Oh," said Kenna, who now seemed clearly uninterested in Percy's identity, "So where are we going to go now?"

            "Let's go to Fred and George's joke shop!" said Harry suddenly, "I've never seen it before."

            Ginny and Ron brightened up considerably, "Yeah!  I wanna see if they have anything new in!" said Ron excitedly.

            "I haven't seen it either," Hermione explained to Harry as they quickly followed Ron and Ginny toward Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

            Harry stopped next to his friends at a medium-sized, red, orange, and gold painted shop with a sign that proudly said "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes!" and changed colors and fonts every thirty seconds.

            "It's even bigger inside than it looks out here!" Ginny said breathlessly.

            "Let's go in then!" cried Kenna stamping his right foot on the ground impatiently, as though he'd been waiting millenniums to go inside.

            When they walked inside, Harry suddenly felt rather overwhelmed by the bustle of activity and the large array of products he saw around him.  There were Skiving Snackboxs, Extendable Ears, Fake Wands, Canary Creams, Ton Tongue Toffee (Which they had once used on Harry's cousin, Dudley), and basically every invention of Fred and George's that Harry had ever seen and more.  

            "Hey Angelina!" Harry heard Ginny suddenly yell, and sure enough, glancing over to his right, in the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes uniform was Angelina Johnson, who had been a Gryffindor student in Fred and George's class and the captain of the Quidditch team last year.

            "Oh, hello guys!  Are you looking for Fred and George?" she asked good-naturedly.

            "We were showing Harry, Hermione, and that kid there," Ron gestured to Kenna, who sputtered indignantly at being called 'that kid', "the joke shop, since they've never seen it before."

            "I bet Fred or George could give you a tour better than me or anyone else, since they built the place, if you're looking for a tour of course.  They're in their laboratory making something new.  But be warned, they aren't in the best of moods," she said cautiously.

            "Why not?" asked Ginny.

            "Well, Percy was walking by here with some of his Ministry friends, and his _wife, _Penelope Clearwater-Weasley and-"

            "Hold up!  Since when is Penelope Clearwater Percy's wife?" asked Harry, knowing he probably looked as confused as he felt.

            "I have no clue, and neither did the twins," said Angelina in a sort of pacifying voice before Harry could throw the assumption that everyone had known they'd been married and not told him.

            "Of course, why would Percy tell us a little thing like that?" mumbled Ginny sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

            "Anyway…" Angelina continued, "he was walking by with them and he was making snide remarks about the shop, saying he was glad he cut himself off from his 'ridiculous' family, then slandering Fred and George, and saying he 'pitied' me and a Alicia Spinnet because we were their girlfriends," she had on a rather sour face by the time she finished, "and he made sure to stop right in front of this place and enunciate every word so we could hear perfectly from in here when he spoke," she had a vicious scowl on her face now, "My relationship with Fred is none of that pompous freak's business!"

            "I'm glad none of the rest of us are like Percy.  I have a feeling the world can only handle one of him," Ron grumbled under his breath.

            "Why is he even doing this?" Hermione demanded more of thin air than anything else, "Can he just get over the fact that he wasn't right and help us?"

            "God forbid the 'Great Percy Weasley' admit he made a mistake," Ginny said frowning, "In fact, I'm surprised he hasn't changed his last name to 'Weatherby', that's what Mr. Crouch liked to call him, wasn't it?"

            "You better not say that, he'll no doubt think of it if you do," Harry remarked sarcastically, "And we all know how horrible that'd be."

            "Are we going or not?" moaned Kenna impatiently.

            "You're in a joke shop, look around!" snapped Ginny.

            "We probably should though, if anyone says the employees are inattentive to their duties, that'll just give Percy something else to laugh about, won't it?" asked Hermione, looking at Angelina.

            "Yeah, I'd better get back to…oh no, some kid opened and ate a Canary Cream," Angelina muttered as she saw a small canary flying above an open wrapper and went to reverse it.

            In the room called the 'laboratory' Fred and George were busy laboring over a new creation.

            "This one will change the world!" said Fred proudly.

            "What _is _it?" asked Hermione.

            "Top secret," George responded, patting her shoulder reassuringly, "but you can test it out for free when we're done."

            "How will it change the world?" asked Ginny.

            "You'll need to wait until we're done to find out," Fred said with an air of obviousness in his voice.

            "I think we should plant some around Percy's work area when we're done," said George with an evil grin on his face.

            "Then wait around for the look on his face!  Brilliant!" cried Fred.

            "We've heard Percy's being a bigger jerk than before," said Harry casually.

            "Yeah, you wouldn't think it'd be possible for his head to swell anymore, but somehow he managed it without getting brain gunk all over everyone," George said glaring at the figure of Percy in a family photo he had on his desk that'd been taken with one of Mr. Weasley's muggle cameras.

            "Unfortunately, he can't run out in this one," said Fred, prodding Percy in the muggle-camera taken picture.

            "So d'you want a tour then?" asked George abruptly.

            "Well, Gin and I could just take them on the main levels if it'll make you get done with that 'top secret' thing any faster," said Ron, trying to get a look at what his brothers had concealed when the Harry, Ron, and the others had walked through the door.

            "No, no…" said Fred, his eyes sparkling.

            "…We should give the one who funded most of this a special tour," finished George, his eyes locked on Harry.

            "Where?" asked Ginny.

            "Our secret rooms," said Fred George together solemnly.

            "What do you use them for?" asked Hermione curiously. 

            "Oh nothing really, we just use them to scare people who trespass up here," said Fred grinning wildly.

            "They contain things that went wrong in production, or that we decided not to use," said George, grinning just as wildly as Fred.

            Hermione gave them a stern look, "What if they injured someone?"

            "Well no one is supposed to be up here unless they're us, our family, our friends, or they work here," George said with a shrug.

            "So anyone who falls into one is up to no good," said Fred seriously.

            "And then we hire them for it if they need a job!" the twins said together.

            "Could I work here when I get older?" asked Kenna, looking, in Harry's opinion, even more excited then he had been in Knockturn Alley.

            "If you're still interested, sure.  You seem to a valiant young troublemaker," George responded.

            "I never knew Ravenclaws did stuff like that, though," Fred said, scratching his head, "Most of them seemed 'too good' for it."

            "Not me!  I'm just too smart for my own good!" said Kenna proudly.

            "I like this kid," Harry heard Fred whisper to George, who nodded sagely.

            About an hour later, Harry was sure he'd never seen so many trap doors in his life.  Fred and George had shown them doors in the floor that brought the unlucky person to a dungeon-like basement room if the person dwelled on them for too long (The dungeons contained a product called 'Mini Gits' that Fred and George had decided not to use for fear of a lawsuit.  The Mini Gits pointed to people and insulted them feverously, assigned detentions and homework and poured cauldrons full of samples of different potions on anyone who insulted them back.  They bore a strong resemblance to Professor Snape, which Fred had explained was the general idea), doors on certain spots in the wall, and even doors in mirrors.  Harry didn't know how long they'd been touring the trap rooms when Lee Jordan, the twins' best friend ran upstairs saying that Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Zondermann were out of their minds with fear that something had happened to Ron, Ginny, Harry, Hermione, and Kenna.

            "And they look ready to tear you all apart," Lee warned them, "So be ready to just bow your heads meekly and says 'yes, M'am' whenever they pause in their rant."


	3. Ghost on the Hogwarts Express

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, I own nothing and I am making no money from this.  The only characters I own are Ava, Kenna, Neona, and all the new people I introduced to the Order of the Phoenix.

**__**

**_Harry Potter and the Mystery of the Veil_**

**_Year 6 at Hogwarts_**

**_Ghost on the Hogwarts Express_**

**__**

            The days in between August 1st (When Harry had gone to get school supplies in Diagon Alley), and September 1st (The start of the new term) passed very quickly.  Too quickly for Harry, who had a feeling even stronger than the one he had last year about not wanting to face his peers.  They'd all heard of Harry's depression over Sirius's death (and someone had given away to the paper the fact that Harry and Sirius had been in communication since the end of Harry's third year.  He was rather glad he didn't know who tattled because he had a feeling he would've tried to wring their necks for making even more of his private life less private) and he was almost certain they would try to make him feel better, but only end up making him feel worse.

            For instance, Ginny and Hermione had warned him that they'd heard Lavender and Parvati were planning on having one of them go into a fake trance and have the other tell Harry that Sirius was communicating with him through the body of which ever one was in the "trance".  Dean Thomas, Ginny's second ex-boyfriend had asked her before they broke up what Sirius looked like after nearly three years out of Azkaban so he could draw a picture of him and throw it over Harry's bed before he came up to it.  Ginny said she'd told him that she didn't really think Harry would want to walk up to their room to unload his belongings and see his dead godfather's face staring up at him.  He was glad Ginny knew him well enough to know something like that, because otherwise he felt he might have had a heart attack.

            "Come on kids, hurry up!  We don't have long to get there!" came Mrs. Malrose's nervous voice from down the stairs as Harry, Ron, Hermione, Kenna, Ava, and Neona all attempted to lug their trunks down the stairs at the same time, much to the amusement of Fred and George.  Ginny had been up for a while and brought her trunk down already.

            "We're taking a portkey mum!  How long can it take?" whined Kenna, who wasn't at all used to being waken up early.

            "It's only seven fifty!" Neona agreed indignantly.

            "Well we can't just pop up in the middle of King's Cross!  We're going to need to walk awhile," snapped Hermione irritably, "The muggles aren't used to seeing things like that!"

            "They would think they'd all gone crazy, and dad wouldn't fancy it if we made a load of muggles think they were crazy," agreed Ron, whose dad was fascinated by muggles.

            "Is Professor Lupin coming on the Hogwarts Express again?" asked Harry.

            "How should we k-" Kenna, who was bringing up the rear as they all attempted to come down the stairs, began.  But suddenly, to everyone's horror, he let out a yelp as he tripped, falling into Ava, who fell into Neona, who fell into Ron and Hermione, both of whom fell into Harry, and they all went tumbling the rest of the way down the stairs.  Fred, George, and Ginny were nearly dying of laughter now.  Eight-year-old Ivan gave them a smirk, as though satisfied they'd been injured, because last night he'd thrown a rather loud temper tantrum when he discovered that he would be the only child in the house.

            "Fred, George, go to work!" roared Mrs. Weasley coming over to help everyone up, "and Ginny, don't sit there laughing because you know it wouldn't have been half as funny to you if you'd been coming down the stairs too.  Help me get them up."

            "Alright mum," she groaned, grabbing one of Ava's arms.

            They'd managed to make it to Platform 9 3/4 mere minutes before the train set off.  Professor Lupin was coming with them after all, along with Kingsley Shacklebolt (Who'd been fired from the Ministry when they found out about his involvement in the Order of the Phoenix).  Harry still had trouble trying to contain his laughter when he remembered the look on the two men's faces when they were coming down the stairs, only to see everyone else lying in a lump on the ground except for Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, Mrs. Zondermann, and Mrs. Malrose, who'd come to see her children off despite the threat that her husband might see her.

            Once on the express, Harry found that it was much more empty than usual, and the platform had been as well now that he thought about it.  Neona scowled at Kenna, "You told me there would be people everywhere!"

            Kenna looked rather concerned, "Well last year there were…"

            "Oh, some of them have died, and others moved somewhere where You-Know-Who wasn't attacking," came a vague voice behind them.

            Ron groaned, "That's Loon-er…Luna Lovegood, isn't it?"

            "The weird girl in my House?  The one we all call Looney Lovegood?" asked Kenna blanching, "Why couldn't it be _her _that died or moved and not some of these other people who aren't here?"

            "Don't say that about her," Harry scolded the second year, and then was very surprised with himself.  He supposed he still felt sorry for Luna, who was teased and bullied by her peers because of how different from them she was.  He was also surprised that Kenna had the guts (or stupidity) to say something like that when Lupin and Shacklebolt were in hearing range.

            "Lupin and I are going up near the conductor, we need to discuss a few things about the Order," said Shacklebolt suddenly, "That's where we'll be if you need us."

            "You should be ok, right?" asked Lupin with slight concern in his voice, "Something…and not just the lack of people…feels off this year."

            "That's just the ghost," said Luna as though there had always been a ghost on the Hogwarts Express.

            "What ghost?" Lupin asked her patiently.

            "The ghost of someone who died this summer.  Her name is Mandy.  Don't ask me why she's haunting the Hogwarts Express, but she is.  I saw her," said Luna truthfully.

            Ginny put a hand over her mouth, "Mandy Brocklehurst?!"

            "That sounds right, but she just said her name was Mandy," said Luna shrugging, "Well, I'm going to find an empty compartment-not that it's hard to do that anymore-and I'll see you all later," she said walking off.

            And at that exact moment, a pearly white girl in Hogwarts robes flew through the door, "Oh hello there.  Nice to see that _YOU'RE _well," she grumbled, gritting her teeth, "I, however, am dead.  And for some reason I have to spend all eternity on this stupid train.  I swear if you don't kill Voldemort, Harry, I'm going to personally make sure you have to join me on this stinking train ride forever!" she moaned, floating through the next compartment door. 

            No one said anything for a moment, until finally Ron spoke up, "That was just odd."

            "Poor Mandy, I wonder why she'd need to haunt the train?" asked Hermione with sympathy evident in her voice.

            Lupin shrugged his shoulders, looking quite puzzled, "Usually ghosts haunt the place of their death, or a place that was very special to them.  Did she do something she thought was worthwhile on this train?"

            Hermione suddenly turned to Ron, "Wasn't Mandy Brocklehurst the girl that was making out in her compartment last year with Justin Finch-Fletchley and then started screaming that she found her soul mate?"

            "Oh yeah, we needed to ask the conductor for a calming draught," said Ron with a small grin on his face, "She really made a big scene, that one."

            "So then it does make partial sense why she would haunt the train," said Shacklebolt, more to himself than anyone else, than abruptly he turned from his thoughts, "Should we be going then, Lupin?" at Lupin's nod, the two men took off for a private compartment close to the front of the train.

            "I'm nervous about being sorted," murmured Ava later as they found where Luna was sitting ("Do we have to sit by Looney?" Kenna had whined) and had been sitting down for a while.

            "Don't worry, all the Houses do have redeeming qualities, even Slytherin," said Hermione in a pacifying voice.

            "Kenna told me all the Slytherins were evil scum," Neona piped up.  Kenna turned slightly red.

            "Well, just because some of them act like that doesn't mean they all do.  They're just too intimidated by Malfoy and his cronies to speak up," said Hermione bitterly.

            "Someone call my name?" asked Malfoy leisurely, wandering into the compartment.

            "We were just talking about people who could be nominated as 'King of the Gits'," said Ginny just as leisurely.

            "Oh no, I heard you and you're absolutely right," Malfoy grinned maliciously, "I've got all of Slytherin House under my pinkie finger.  It's handy, really," he said with a smirk on his face.  He gestured to Crabbe and Goyle, standing loyally behind him, "For instance, if I tell them to beat you up, or use an Unforgivable Curse on you, they'll do it, no questions asked," he said, and seemed to be searching their faces for any sign of fear.  Harry knew that Hermione, Ron, Luna, and Ginny were all fine, but Kenna and Neona both paled slightly, and Neona at least was biting her bottom lip.  Ava, sitting by the window began sobbing softly and had her arms over her head as though she thought that would help if Crabbe and Goyle used an Unforgivable.

            "Yes, well I'm not doubting your abilities, or Mr. Crabbe or Mr. Goyle's, Mr. Malfoy, but I'm afraid the curses are called Unforgivable for a reason," came the voice of Lupin, who standing in the doorway with Shacklebolt.

            Malfoy immediately turned several shades paler and seemed at loss for words until he was finally able to sputter, "Oh Professor Lupin!  I was only…not serious…and I'd never use an Unforgivable on anyone!  I don't really know how to…really…" and with that he took off out the door that Lupin and Shacklebolt weren't standing by, Crabbe and Goyle at his heels.

            Lupin walked over to Ava, who was still sobbing and sat down next to her, "Will you be alright?" he asked gently.  Ava nodded, and tried to stop herself from sobbing, without success.

            "Wh-what if…" Ava began, but then couldn't control her sobbing anymore.

            "What if what?" asked Kenna, leaning over to get a better look at her.  Hermione grabbed the corner of his robes and pulled him back, whispering something to the effect of, "Don't stare at her."

            She sniffled and took a deep breath of air before answering, "What if I get sorted into Slytherin?  M-Malfoy will kill me…he'll kill me," she began to sob again.

            "Oh he won't kill you, he'll just jinx you and I speak from experience-" Kenna began, but was cut off by a sharp look by Hermione and Ginny and Ron and Harry clamping a hand over his mouth at the same time.  Ava sobbed harder.  Luna and Neona were watching patiently to see the outcome of the ordeal, and Luna at least, seemed to be watching it as though it were a program on TV.  Shacklebolt looked quite uncomfortable.

            "Ava, listen to me," said Lupin calmly, "while myself, one of the other teachers, or anyone else in this compartment is around, Mr. Malfoy will not lay a hand on you.  Professor Snape may not look like the friendliest person, but if you _are _sorted into Slytherin, he would stop Mr. Malfoy from lying a hand on you," this seemed to calm Ava down slightly.

            "You won't be sorted into Slytherin anyway," came Luna's voice all of a sudden.  Everyone turned to look at her, "I can see it.  You're going to be a Ravenclaw," Kenna scoffed.

            "H-How do you know?" asked Ava, her lower lip trembling.  Harry remembered being nervous as a first year, but not this nervous.  Then again, Malfoy hadn't been a large sixth year when he was in first.

            "I can just tell," said Luna vaguely with a shrug, as though that settled it.

            "What will I be?!" asked Neona excitedly.

            Luna studied her intently, giving her what, in Harry's opinion, was a rather creepy look, as though she were reading Neona like an open book, "I think you'll be a Gryffindor," she said at last.

            "What makes you say that?!" demanded Kenna harshly.  Then he turned his eyes on Shacklebolt, "And you aren't a teacher, so why are you even coming?!" 

            Shacklebolt chuckled, appearing amused by Kenna, "I'm taking over History of Magic."

            "But it said on my letter that Professor Binns was still teaching," said Hermione with a puzzled frown.

            "Well, he was going to, but it seems that one day this summer he went slightly haywire and screamed that he never wanted to see his classroom or Hogwarts again, and disappeared into thin air and hasn't been seen since, or at least that's what Dumbledore told me," he responded, sounding as though he thought the tale was quite odd himself.

            "We finally drop it and Professor Binns _leaves_?" said Harry, finding this extremely unfair.

            "Life's hard, huh mate?" said Ron sympathetically.  Ava started to giggle quietly.

            "Death is hard too," moaned Mandy Brocklehurst, flying into the compartment, "I can't even pick up a teaspoon!  It's so frustrating!  Why did I have to be afraid of whatever comes right after you die?  WHY?!" she cried, and left the compartment sobbing harder than Ava had.

            "So not only do we need to deal with an overemotional, whiny ghost at Hogwarts, but now on the train, too?" grumbled Ron, whom Harry was sure was comparing Mandy to Moaning Myrtle, who haunted one of the girls' bathrooms at Hogwarts.  Myrtle had been killed by a Basilisk while she was at Hogwarts, and was forever moping in the place of her death.

            "Mandy was really nice was she was alive," murmured Hermione sadly.

            "Well I'd be pretty P.O.'d too if I had to live in this place forever," said Ginny looking around at the compartment.  Seeing how badly Mandy was handling all this, Harry now felt very angry with himself for even hoping that Sirius would return as ghost over the summer holiday.  

            "Ghosts were never the happiest of people during life, and seem to feel like they died an unfair death too," said Lupin wisely.

            "I bet Harry knows about a lot of people who died an unfair death, so why aren't they ghosts?" prompted Kenna, seeming not at all concerned about how Harry might feel being dragged into this.

            And to Harry's surprise, he suddenly understood why, "Because they…they might have had a few unhappy times in their lives, but overall they weren't disappointed and angry about how they'd lived," Lupin nodded at him, looking rather proud that Harry had understood, _'Well I hope he doesn't think I've known this forever.  But I don't really have a reason to discredit my intelligence on the subject.  It'd be awkward it I just blurted out that I've only just figured this out.'_

"In that case, Percy's bound to haunt the Ministry of Magic.  He's never entirely happy with what he's done in life and I suspect he never will be.  I just hope he doesn't drive too many people insane," said Ron, looking as though he were half joking, half serious.  Harry saw that Hermione was trying to cover up a bit of laughter.

            When the train arrived at the station, Ava was pale again, but not from fear, _'Oh no, if only it were that simple,'_ thought Harry with a sigh, but in fact, this time Ava was looking like she was going to be sick.  Her face was a pale green color and she was shivering quite a bit.

            "I'll be able to make it," she told Lupin stubbornly when he offered to have himself or Shacklebolt take to take her to Madame Pomfrey and ask McGonagall if she could be sorted privately later.  Harry suspected this had more to do with embarrassment than with her really feeling up to it.

            When they got out of the express, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny found Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Lavender Brown, and Parvati Patil, some of their fellow Gryffindors.  Harry heard Hagrid's familiar call of "Firs' years!  Firs' years, this way!" as he ushered them into small boats that would take them through the lake and right to Hogwarts.   

            Harry turned his head over to the carriages that carried the other students to Hogwarts.  The Thestrals were still there; they were bony horse-like creatures with wings that appeared only to those who had seen death.  Harry shuddered, he had been hoping privately that seeing Thestrals was just some crazy dream he'd had about last year, but they were still as real as ever.  He got into one of the carriages, followed by Ron and Hermione, and it abruptly set off for the castle.

            As Harry walked into the Great Hall, he felt a surge of happiness at being there.  Its familiar design was comforting to him after the holidays.  He finally felt like he was home again.  He walked with Ron and Hermione over to the Gryffindor table.  Hogwarts had four houses: Gryffindor (Which Harry, Ron, Hermione, and all of Ron's siblings belonged to), Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin.  Each year, a battered old hat called 'The Sorting Hat' was placed on the head of first years to determine which of these houses best fit their personality.  

            Lavender Brown pointed to the entrance of the Great Hall, "Look!  There are the first years!  Aren't they so tiny and cute?"

            And across the room, Harry heard Pansy Parkinson's (A pug-faced Slytherin girl) voice, "Look Draco!  Look at that one!  That's my little sister, Posy!  No, not the brunette one, the one next to her!"

            Professor McGonagall, the Head of Gryffindor and Deputy Headmistress, walked over near the staff table and pulled out a stool with the battered old sorcerer's hat on it and placed it in the middle of the room.  Looking over at the first years, Harry could've sworn he saw Ava going an even greener shade then before, and wobbling slightly.

            Then to the surprise of the first years, the sorting hat burst into enthusiastic song:

_Oh this may come as a shock to you,_

_and certainly to all,_

_but I know all inside you head,_

_it's no use hiding from me,_

_I'll sort into where you belong, you just wait and see!_

_You've got four choices, _

_four houses await,_

_each with strengths and weaknesses_

_and wild assumptions made by other houses,_

_a division between them, tried and true._

_First there's Gryffindor,_

_house of the brave and courageous,_

_yet the other houses see them, as foolhardy,_

_reckless, knaves._

_Then there's Hufflepuff,_

_where hard workers and loyal people stay,_

_though the other houses will call them,_

_stupid, pathetic slugs._

_After that there's Ravenclaw,_

_where the intelligent are always valued,_

_but other houses wave them off,_

_as snobby, stuck-up know-it-alls._

_Finally we have Slytherin,_

_home of the ambitious and cunning,_

_they've got the worst stereotype,_

_as horrible, evil men._

_Yet, let me tell you these are only opinions,_

_held by different types of people,_

_the only one who can decide what to do with your house's name,_

_is you._

            The Sorting Hat went silent, and so did everyone else.  No one was expecting the hat to sing about the other houses' opinion of a particular house.  And Harry could see that quite a few people seemed, for some reason, to have trouble grasping the last two lines. 

            Professor McGonagall stepped up beside the hat and cleared her voice, "When I say your name, you will proceed to the Sorting Hat, put it on your head, and when it tells you what house you will be in, place the hat back down and go to your house table.  Ambly, Darryl," a boy who was taller than most of the other eleven year olds nervously walked forward.

"RAVENCLAW!" cried the hat after a while.

            And the sorting continued to drag onward…Arzon…Ayin…Becker… Bockhold…Casma…Cemer…Crape…Crump…Cvech…Danson…Dimler…Dyber…Echie…

            And then a name that caught Harry's attention, "Evans, Mark," called McGonagall.  A small boy with orange hair walked forward, stumbling once or twice and put on the oversized hat.

            It seemed to consider him for a while, "GRYFFINDOR!" the hat finally called, and he put the hat down, running, as if for dear life, to the Gryffindor table.  This all bothered Harry for several reasons, first of all, Mark Evans had been a small boy whom Dudley and his gang had beat up last year, secondly, last year he'd found out for certain that his mother's maiden name had been Evans, and thirdly, this boy had nearly the same shade of hair as his mother.  Did his mum have other relatives living nearby Little Whinging?  If so, why did he always need to stay with the dreadful Dursleys, when it seemed these relatives wholly accepted magic if they let Mark come to Hogwarts?  

            Harry was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't turn his attention back to the Sorting until Ron pointed out, "Look, it's time for that Neona girl to be sorted," Harry jerked his head upward just as McGonagall called out, "Malrose, Neona" and Neona's head of light brown hair flew in every direction as she raced towards the hat and, in a gesture that reminded both Harry and Ron of Hermione when she was being sorted, nearly jammed the hat onto her head.

            "GRYFFINDOR!" it called without much consideration.

            The next girl, who had short blond hair, named Hypatia Merrin, became a Ravenclaw, then after that Cashlin Mick, a girl with black hair in a messy bun became a Slytherin, and Thelma Norris became a Hufflepuff, then it skipped right ahead to Posy Parkinson, Pansy's younger sister.  Pansy was whispering excitedly to Malfoy, and seemed to have full confidence that Posy would become a Slytherin, but to her amazement the sorting hat called out that Posy was a Hufflepuff.  The small girl turned beet red and shuffled her feet over to the Hufflepuff table, but then Professor McGonagall called to her that it'd be nice if she put the hat back on the stool, so she returned it there, and turned an even darker shade of red.  Pansy was smacking herself in the forehead and muttering in an exasperated tone of voice, more to herself than to Malfoy, who was snickering and not bothering to try and hide it.

            The sorting once again became a blur in Harry's mind until he heard the last name called, "Zondermann, Ava," he noted the Ava was looking worse than before and shaking nearly uncontrollably.  Her bluish hair, much like her father's, was beginning match nicely with her greenish face.  When she put the hat on, after a moment of consideration, it called, "RAVENCLAW!" and the poor girl didn't even make it to the Ravenclaw table before she fainted on the floor.  McGonagall hurried forward to help her up, and after she was awakened, she insisted she was all right and slunk down next to Luna at the Ravenclaw table.  Harry angrily noted Padma Patil, Parvati's twin sister in Ravenclaw, was giggling with her group of friends and doing a few fainting impressions reminiscent of the ones Malfoy had done in third year when Dementors had made Harry faint.

            It was then that Harry remembered that the official pardoning ceremony for Sirius was tonight.  Or was supposed to be tonight.  He decided to turn his attention to Dumbledore and see if he made any mention of it.

            Despite the worsening state of events in the wizarding world, Dumbledore's blue eyes still twinkled as he began his beginning of the year speech, "Welcome all new and returning students to Hogwarts!  Before we get in to another subject of great importance, I would like all first years to note that the Forbidden Forest is strictly off-limits!  Some of our older students should have learned this by now…but it seems this is not the case," he directed a glace at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, especially Hermione who had lured their foul former Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Dolores Umbridge, in there just last year.  Amusement was evident from the look on his face, "and Mr. Filch once again has a list of objects forbidden in the corridors on his office door.  I would like to welcome Professor Kingsley Shacklebolt to the staff, as he will be filling a just-opened post for History of Magic, and I would like to re-welcome Professor Remus Lupin who will once again be taking over Defense Against the Dark Arts-"

            And then a Slytherin boy named Blaise Zabini cut Dumbledore off, and yelled in a disgruntled voice, "But he's a werewolf!" and some more Slytherins let in yells of, "YEAH!" Harry wanted to go over there and make them shut up by whatever means necessary, and it looked like Ron, Hermione, and Ginny did too, yet the little voice inside their heads that directed common sense made sure they all knew what trouble they would be in if they did it. 

            But Dumbledore had a determined look on his face and plowed on, "This is exactly the reason I hired Professor Lupin again, besides the fact that he is a very capable teacher.  In the world we are living in now, you must learn tolerance for many different types of people, whatever they may be.  The more divided by petty grievances we are, the easier Voldemort will find it to divide us, and the easier we will be conquered," he paused, and in Harry's opinion seemed to be inviting the Slytherins to challenge him again.  They said nothing, so he continued, "In the past summer we have lost many of our best students, victims of Voldemort and his Death Eaters, however, they will never be forgotten.  But do not be frightened by these events, for as long as you are inside the walls of Hogwarts, I assure that you are safe.  And to our seventh years who will soon be leaving us, I tell you once again, the stronger we are united, the harder it will be for Voldemort to break our ties and defeat us," once again he paused.  No one said anything.  They all sat straight in their chairs, eyes locked on Dumbledore, "I would also like to address the subject of the pardoning of Sirius Black, a great man unjustly accused and sentenced to Azkaban.  The Minister of Magic decided at the last minute that he would rather hold the pardoning at Christmas time, in a less public place.  It causes me to think he and the other Ministry Officials who were to be attending are highly embarrassed about their mistake and would rather not admit it in front of so many people," the twinkle returned to his eyes and Harry couldn't help but feeling slightly elated about his last statement, "Now then, let us eat!" he clapped his hands and the Great Hall filled with food.

            "Those Slytherins!" growled Ron, his mouth filled with chicken, "We should just kick the whole lot out!  That'd solve a lot of problems!"

            Hermione frowned, "I agree they aren't acting the best, but surely some of them aren't as idiotic."

            "They all are," responded Harry in a tone that he hoped sounded final, "Look at what they've done.  They'll all do anything just to stand against everyone else.  In fact, if we all went and joined Voldemort," everyone flinched at the sound of the name except Harry, "I bet they'd go help the Order!  They do it all just so they can piss us off!" he finished scowling deeply.

            Ginny smiled lightly, "Let's act like that to them then and see what they do.  I'm all for it.  We don't need to go as far as saying we support V-Vo-Volde…you know, but we should just act like how they normally act to us," she now had an evil smile played out on her face.

            "Reverse psychology!" said Hermione triumphantly.

            "Um…sure, if that's what the muggles call it," said Ginny looking slightly confused, but trying not to show it.

            Hermione really appeared to be getting serious about this, "But first we should see exactly how they act, then make notes on it and such, and then by that time we should be prepared…oh, but we aren't going slander teachers, right?  I refuse to slander them," she said firmly.

            "Does this mean no more spew?" asked Ron excitedly.

            "It's S.P.E.W., Ron," she corrected gently, "and no, I should still have plenty of time for it," Ron looked crestfallen.

            "We're actually going for this then?" said Harry, raising an eyebrow slightly.  It wasn't that he didn't think it was a good idea; it was just that he didn't think Hermione would have been so excited to make fun of the Slytherins in this way. 

            "Um, are you feeling sicker than Ava, Hermione?" asked Ginny with concern.

            "No!  Reverse psychology is such a great way to get to people like the Slytherins, though," she said tentatively.

            Ron shrugged, "Let's think about that after the feast.  I wanna eat, and I'm not in a listening mood."

            "Oh yes, we probably should hurry," said Hermione nervously, "We need to show the first years to their dorms."

            Reminded of the first years, Harry once again looked over at Mark Evans while absentmindedly buttering a piece of corn. The boy was engaged in a conversation with another first year named Damian Danson, who was making animated gestures as he mocked his mother's reaction to him getting a letter, because apparently his father, a wizard, had assured his wife that their son would have no magic in him.  Both boys were laughing, and suddenly Mark began to talk, and Harry perked up his ears to listen to every word, "My parents are both uh, what are they called?  Murgles?  You know, people without magic?" he looked around him as though he wouldn't go on until someone told him what the word was for certain. 

            Harry, being just a few seats away, decided to offer an answer, "Muggles," he shouted to Mark.

            "Oh yeah, thanks!" said Mark enthusiastically, looking as though he wasn't suspicious that Harry had been listening to their conversation, "Well my parents are both muggles, so they had no clue.  My dad told me that he had a relative, a sister or a cousin or someone-wasn't paying much attention-who was a witch, but it didn't turn up in him, so he didn't know it would happen to me.  It's a good thing that he had experience with it too, otherwise I bet mum would've just laughed it off.  She's really practical and down-to- earth-" 

            "Harry!" said Ginny, calling him back to his friends' conversation, "Harry, I've been yelling at you for the last thirty seconds," she said impatiently.

            "What?!" snapped Harry, annoyed that he'd now missed the rest of Mark Evan's story about his family.

            Ginny huffed, "Don't get all angry at me, Harry.  If you'd pay attention, you'd have noticed that you've been buttering the same section of your corn for the last ten minutes.  I thought you might like to know that before a big glob of butter dropped onto your hand."

            Harry suddenly felt very embarrassed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hi everyone!  Thanks for the reviews, they really boost my morale!  Ugh, I'm disgusted that I couldn't make a better Sorting Hat song, though _.  Anywho, sorry that this chapter isn't as long as the last one, but the next chapter should be plenty long.  I try to make my chapters all at least ten pages long, and it's happened so far, but depending on how much I have to explain/cover in each chapter it may be anywhere from ten or eleven pages (Like this one) to twenty pages or so (I hope the next chapter will be close to that).

Heero: It probably also has to do with laziness *Bops TRF*

Agh, stupid muses!  Anyway, your feedback is greatly appreciated, so keep reviewing!

See you in the next chapter!

~TRF


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